Bywaters, P., Brady, G., Bunting, L. et al. (7 more authors) (2018) Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: a universal challenge? Child & Family Social Work, 23 (1). pp. 53-61. ISSN 1356-7500
Abstract
The role that area deprivation, family poverty and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children’s services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out-of-home care and child protection interventions. The work scales up a pilot study in the West Midlands to an all-England sample, representative of English regions and different levels of deprivation at a local authority (LA) level. The analysis evidences a strong relationship between deprivation and intervention rates and large inequalities between ethnic categories. There is further evidence of the inverse intervention law (Authors’, 2015): for any given level of neighbourhood deprivation, higher rates of child welfare interventions are found in LAs which are less deprived overall. These patterns are taking place in the context of cuts in spending on English children’s services between 2010-11 and 2014-15 that have been greatest in more deprived LAs. Implications for policy and practice to reduce such inequalities are suggested.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Wiley. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Child and Family Social Work. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | child protection; child welfare; looked‐after children; poverty |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 May 2017 13:42 |
Last Modified: | 20 Oct 2023 11:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/cfs.12383 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:116360 |